South Sudan's Kiir replaces army chief Paul Malong

General Paul Malong is accused of ethnic war against people not belonging to his ethnic majority tribe.

09 May 2017 21:42 GMT

Controversial army chief was seen as undermining the country's peace [File:Jason Patinkin/AP Photo]

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has dismissed Paul Malong, the war-torn country's powerful army chief of staff.

Malong was sacked via a presidential decree that was announced on Tuesday on national television by Kiir himself.

General James Ajongo Mawut, the former deputy chief of general staff for administration and finance, was named the new head of armed forces.

On the front line with South Sudan rebels

Minister of Defence Kuol Manyang Juuk downplayed the move as "routine", calling it "just a normal practice of changing somebody and bringing [in] another person".

South Sudan descended into conflict in December 2013 after Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar, whom he had sacked earlier that year, of plotting a coup.

The clashes that followed set off a cycle of retaliatory killings that have split the world's newest country, which won its independence from Sudan in 2011, along ethnic lines.

As Kiir, from the Dinka ethnic group, fought it out with rebels allied to Machar, a Nuer, both sides committed atrocities, including massacres and gang rape, according to the United Nations and the African Union.

In February, several senior army officers resigned, accusing Malong of conducting an ethnic war against non-Dinkas and ruling with an "unqualified clique of friends and relatives".

Among those who quit was Lieutenant-General Thomas Cirillo who has since announced plans to launch his own rebellion.

Malong is widely regarded by some as being the mastermind of fighting that erupted in the capital, Juba, last July, killing hundreds and dashing hopes of a power-sharing government between Kiir and Machar